Chapter 6

The Lost Key

CHAPTER SIX

Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ! John 1:17. The undeserved favor of God and reality came into the world by Jesus Christ! God has married them and that which God has joined together man cannot separate - there is no divorce here! All men seek for and desire more of - the grace of God - they may not want the God of grace but they cannot live without the grace of God! The young man in the process of courting woos his sweetheart with pound boxes of chocolates - boating trips up the river on a Saturday afternoon - soft lights and music in some cozy little cafe - he will spend and spend on her - lavish a thousand attentions on her! Why? That finally he shall draw her to himself! What is his reaction if she takes all his gifts and goes off with another? Ex. 20:5; I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God! God is the only one in finality who has a right to be jealous!

There is no sin in God's jealousy - no unrighteousness.

The glory, or credit due to Him is His by right of creation and redemption! Of Him are all things! What rights have you? You cannot curse Him except with the lungs and the air He gave you!

If, like Jonah, you run away from Him, there is no sea to cross, no mountain to climb, no cave to hide in, but belongs to Him! The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof! Trespassers will be prosecuted! Could you fly to some far flung outpost of the universe - He owns all the galaxies - all the milky ways - flaming worlds like the teeming fish of the oceans darting hither and thither in their appointed orbits hurtling at millions, billions and even trillions of miles distance from each other were all created by Him. The mind reels as it attempts to grasp what one light year is - how much more when scientists tell us that the light from distant worlds traveling at 186,000 miles per SECOND left there before Jesus came to Bethlehem nearly 2,000 years ago! How great is our God!

Consider the favor and condescension of God who upholds every function of your house of clay - could you make your eye to see, your ear to hear, your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe, your brain to function? In Him we live and move and have our being! For every recognized function of your body there are dozens and dozens you would only appreciate when you lost them and they ceased to operate! Only then when reduced to a driveling, slavering, gibbering imbecile staggering into blind oblivion would it be apparent how utterly the creature is dependent upon the Creator - have you ever thanked God for your Reason?

We need the grace of God even to recognize the grace of God - grace for grace John 1:16. Now is the accepted time! Now is the day of salvation.

So then whether they admit it or not all men seek the grace of God viz., health, wealth, prosperity, joy, peace, happiness - the things we wish each other every Christmastide on the cards we send - that which we pay into the Prudential or Pearl, etc., for - Security! God has a monopoly of them - He has no rival - no competitor. He is the sole distributor!

I may not like your brand of toothpaste, soap, chocolate on Woolworth's stall so - I buy another. I do not like the Daily Wail so - I buy the Evening Shout! What can I do when confronted with the ALL MIGHTY GOD, THE GREAT I AM who corners me, pins my ears to the wall and says, "What did you say?" You tell me I am scheduled to fight Cassius Clay or whoever else may reign as the world's champion boxer in a fifteen round contest and I will find a convenient place to lie down at the feet of the referee and say, "Now then Mr. Referee you count me out quick and oblige yours truly - thank you!" Some of us have tried fighting God and know what happened, to our cost! An ex-heavy weight boxer took a young Irishman in hand to train him. "Now Paddy," he said, "when you have had enough just cry out PAX! that means peace, I've had enough, I surrender - understand?" Paddy nodded. They went at it! If it had been a proper contest, round after round after round would have gone by - ripping, tearing sledge hammer blows, the two men, toe to toe, pounded one another until finally the ex-heavy weight could take no more and gasped out "PAX" as he collapsed.

"Shure Bedad and that's the lovely wee word o'ive been trying to remember meself these last twenty minutes an' more," said Paddy as he helped his trainer on to his feet! David says: "The Lord is my Shepherd HE MAKETH ME TO LIE DOWN" (Ps. 23). At times, it would almost seem as if the Lord had a job on to make some of us to lie down! What a "lovely wee word" PAX! Peace! I surrender is!

A rather large and ponderous lady married to a very thin and weedy little man was going out for the evening and had arranged for the baby sitter to put all the children to bed. Upon returning, she asked her how she had managed.

"Oh, no trouble, no trouble," she replied. "Except with the ginger haired one, who came in after the others had gone to bed - he kicked and protested but I settled him all right - I held his head under the cold water tap until he gave in! "Needless to state the ginger haired rebel was the good lady's husband! God always has a cold water tap to "help" me to give in! I listen to the plausible lies of the devil who promises me all sorts of things if I will serve him only to finish up in the pig swill of disillusionment with the memory of how my father treated His servants (almost like sons). They have bread enough AND TO SPARE - they are not desperately waiting for pay-day - they have some left over! "And I perish with hunger!" (Luke 15). I need God's grace but the grace is not just to meet MANS need it is married to the truth! So, when I seek to lead grace away from her betrothed spouse, she says, "Oh no - I will not come unless you invite my husband as well, Mr. Truth. We will come to your house together! " This puts me on a spot! Do I want grace to consume upon my lusts or do I want her for that which God has expressly matched and mated her for - the Truth - which is the glory of God! The truth is, that the grace of God is FIRST for the glory of God and only incidentally to meet my need!

"Tommy," said auntie, "Do you like your sandwiches cut in squares or diamonds?"

"Auntie," said Tommy, "I like them the way YOU cut them - even if you cut them the way I don't like them! " See the point? You and I are only incidental - God first - while ever you want to be number one God will put you out, and when you say amen to God to being left out, He will bring you in, so the sooner you are out the sooner you will be in! How important we are in our own eyes! Man and his need are only incidental! The gigantic truth of the universe is ALL things are OF, THROUGH and TO the glory of God! As you receive this truth you will find that the grace will automatically flow! In other words the grace of God is divinely thermostatically controlled not in line with your need but in line with His glory! His strength is made perfect in weakness - the perfect Man was a helpless man and declared "I can OF MY OWN SELF do nothing!" Jn. 5:30. God's grace like a glove is made to fit the needy hand of man's weakness, that the excellency of the power may be OF GOD and not of us, thus glorifying God!

Now the point of all this is, that if you require more grace see the principle that releases it - the measure of the grace you are enjoying in your life is the measure of the truth you have received! Asking for more grace will put the ball back your side of the net! Receive more truth! To do this you will have to humble yourself at the appropriate counter to buy the truth! All the child's begging for the ignition key of daddy's car will avail nothing! So, live with daddy, obey daddy and be one with daddy's mind and automatically one day to fulfill Father's will you will be driving Father's car, which is NOT a toy or a plaything but a vehicle for the greater expression of the Father's mind and PLAN and purpose! The journey from daddy to Father is something in the child rather than the Father!

How long does this journey take? Just as long as it takes the child to be able and willing to be ONE with the Father! Grow in grace. Jesus says (Jn. 16:12) "I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now!" There are tens of thousands who have so abused their bodies with their unbridled appetites that they cannot even enjoy the doubtful pleasures of their own sins now. Bodies that were made and given for the glory of God, abandoned to unnatural perversions, rotting with venereal diseases, ulcers and sores, crippled and broken in a mad gamble with death - to "show off". Lungs made for God's pure air sentenced by cancer to wheeze and gasp - glazed eyes and listless limbs under the spell of drug addiction. The "hangover" of the morning after the night before - the thudding head! All fulfilling the Word of God! "Be not deceived; God is not mocked!" So many think they can. "For whatsoever (mark that) whatsoever a man soweth - that shall he also reap - for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption - but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:7-8). Many seek God's grace but do they want His truth? They seek deliverance - yes healing - yes - for what?

I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye PRESENT YOUR BODIES a living sacrifice (Roms. 12:1) Why? Your reasonable service for the glory of God! Ye are NOT your own (1 Cor. 6:19). Well what about it? HAVE YOU DONE THIS YET? Well, HAVE you? Incidentally you will have a lot less trouble with your body when you come to recognize you have not got one! What you do does not count in God's sight but WHY you do it! Is it for God's glory? Like the 1914 - 18 war, many people have signed an armistice with God in the railway carriage of their own choosing - they are officially no longer at war with God - they have come to - "TERMS". After the Nazi uprising under Hitler the only terms the western nations would accept were UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! this situation was preceded by 1,000 bomber raids on German territory - block busters on the marshaling yards of Hamburg - night after night - waves of Lancaster bombers brought death and destruction to the might of the German empire finally culminating in the awful horror of Hiroshima and the hydrogen bomb - this was termed a "softening up" process! After the smoke and dust had cleared from the twisted, mutilated mass of humanity, a shocked and shaken world, dazed and subdued was ushered into a new era - conquered and conqueror alike were made strangely aware of the terrifying import of the day of fulness and whilst we still pay homage to the tradition of the past, our army convoys rumble along our country roads, deep down in man like the unanswered cry of a child in the night, is the question or are the questions - Whither? What? When? and Why? No politician has the answer, and no eye can pierce the ominous storm clouds that loom ahead in our day and generation - the scripture is literally fulfilled, "Men's hearts failing them for fear!" as civilization uneasily sits on the craters edge of the volcanic future! Unless the church has the answer - no one has!

Now what does this mean to you and me? The two wars are typical of the internal struggle that goes on in the life of the believer - the 1914 - 18 conflict which ended as we have said, with "terms" and obviously speaks of measure whereas the last war terminated with the unconditional surrender of the enemy - this terminated the terms, exterminated the "Party" (Nazi party) and annihilated Hitler which of course is in line with fulness and is topical and typical with what God is doing today! All of us by nature are at enmity with God - at war!

We have been "reconciled" through our Lord Jesus to the Father and most believers have come to "terms" - or made an ARMISTICE!

Few know anything about unconditional surrender to God because this involves the complete wind up of the IR government - the "party" must go and lose its identity - the uprising must be quelled by the abdication of my heart from the throne of it's mutiny against God - this is fullness. After the last war the Nazi party was "dissolved" - it had no function in fulness but to lose its identity in unconditional surrender - my personality - my "himself" to be eclipsed in the blaze of the Glory of God! SURRENDER WITHOUT A CONDITION!! The government is upon His shoulder (Is. 9:6) and of the increase of His government and peace - THERE SHALL BE NO END! John, in his day (the day of measure) rightly said, "He must increase - I must decrease (Jn. 3: 30). But in line with the day of fulness my lease is up - Acts 17:30 declares there was a time when God winked and Paul declares he was permitted a measure of self exaltation (2 Cor. 12:7) "Lest I should be exalted ABOVE measure" - this of course was in the day of measure but now in the day of fulness no flesh will be permitted to glory in His presence (1 Cor. 1:29) - the time for a complete eviction order has arrived! Now the Lord HAD said unto Abraham GET OUT!!

Whilst in the day of measure there is a place for me to be a co-worker with God and like Paul I may cry "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phillips 4:13) yet, the Son of God who operated in fulness declares (Jn. 5:30) I can of my own self do nothing and it is the Father that dwelleth in Me; He doeth the works (Jn. 14:10) God is ALL in ALL! In the end it shall be manifest what IS and even the Son shall be subject - in fact He always has been! (1 Cor. 15:8). The Holy Spirit has a Himself - a "Me" a personality that does not operate on His own (He shall not speak OF HIMSELF) (Jn. 16:13). He is subject! Whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak! The Lord Jesus has a Himself, a "Me", a personality that does not operate on His own. I can of MY OWN SELF do nothing - as I hear I judge! He is subject! So then in the Trinity there are three speakers and three doers - these are two listeners - they do not pool their differences - they have none - and they have none because they are One! God the Father is ALL in ALL or, if you like, ALL in three. "Of Him" are all things! So then in fulness - this is the key - neither the Son or the Holy Ghost do anything of themselves - only One operates in the Trinity - the Father! The Father that dwelleth in Me HE DOETH THE WORKS! This is the secret of the mystery of God - if the Glory is all God's then the work is all God's!

The responsibility of my "Himself" is to let go and let God - to get out of the way - my only struggle, a struggle not to struggle! As David said when he stood before the towering Goliath THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S! I am not called to a life of chrysalis unconsciousness - living in a lethargy of laziness but rather a yielded channel to the divine energy of omnipotence! Jesus declared He could do nothing and then did everything - by the power of another - substitution! Now dear reader, may you see this - Jesus prayed for His disciples that they MAY BE ONE AS WE ARE! (Jn. 17:11) and when the "other sons" receive the principle of the first Son they will live like Him! Man is a trinity and when God said "Let US make man in our own image" (Gen. 1:26) - our likeness and let them have dominion, He purposes to be all in all - in other words to FILL all three parts of you! When that which is PERFECT (God) is come then that which is in part shall be done away (1 Cor. 13:10) (YOU). The fulness of Him which filleth ALL in ALL! (Ephes. 1:23) Jesus declared "I and My Father are two! "

No - He did not! - I and My Father are ONE!! No division - if you are to be conformed to the image of the Son you also will cry "I and MY Father are One! Now see how this operates in a person - let us put the x-ray on the three parts of Mary: Luke 1:46. Mary said - "MY SOUL doth magnify the Lord!" Luke 1:47 My Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior! Two parts filled with God! Luke 2:49 Jesus said to Mary I must be about My Father's business - Mary understood not the saying but kept it IN HER HEART.

With the heart man believes! Three parts here spirit, soul, heart or body - the fulness of God demands ALL! To go back to the illustration of the two wars how many believers have come to "terms" with God in their heart, instead of unconditionally surrendering to God in their heart. God has a measure of glory for a measure of work which He has been permitted (!) to do in my life! Some of us however have been subject to heavenly air raids - God has been dropping bombs on the fortifications of the empire of our flesh life - block-busters with unerring precision have devastated our communication lines and many have been made aware that they are in a "softening up" process of preparation. Like Saul on the Damascus road bewildered and perplexed if not in despair, they have cried out, asking and at the same time almost answering their own question "Who art thou Lord?" The preparation of the heart is of the Lord and the counsel and the work go together (Is. 28:29)

Remember whilst the Perfect Man said He could do nothing, He did everything! His was no negative confession of defeat but rather the triumphant cry of one who was jealous for His Father's glory. Whilst of MY OWN SELF I can do nothing, ALL POWER is given unto Me! Storms quailed, devils fled, sickness vanished and death died in the presence of this man! As Jean Paul Richter declared: The crucified Jew being the mightiest among the Holy, and the Holiest among the mighty, has with His pierced hands, lifted empires off their hinges, turned the stream of centuries and STILL governs the ages! The impact of this Man cannot be ignored by believer or infidel alike - they are compelled to pay homage as they ask to be put off the bus at St. Paul's or Christchurch; with the coin they tender, dated with His birthday A.D. 1967 - the year of Our Lord Anno Domini! They may get drunk at Xmas or Easter but cannot ignore that His birthday, His resurrection gave them the excuse to do it! He routed the multiplication table on the back of every sixpenny exercise book when He took a little lad's five loaves and two fishes and grammar reels before Him as He strides from the present into the past and with sublime dignity declares "Before Abraham was I am!" How much more can be added to testify of this unknown Nazarene emerging from a carpenter's shop - the dumb, the deaf, the lame, the blind, the leper even the humble little fish with a coin in its mouth, all hasten to pay homage to Jesus!

Many many millions of us at this moment are hailing "the power of Jesus' Name!" So what? Stripped of all sentiment, fine language, veneer, etc., etc., what is the naked basic truth that Jesus came to bring? The Father for the glory of His Name will never be satisfied with anything less than the fulfillment of His divine plan which was declared in the beginning - God MUST have the last Word and the FIRST word will be the LAST word "Let us make man in our image and let them have dominion!" Jesus came to redeem man out of the devil's pawnshop (1 Peter 1:18) not with silver or gold but with His precious blood, but in an utter most salvation there will be those conformed to the image (note the word) of the Son that He might be the first born among MANY brethren (Rom. 9:29) Ephes. 4:13 speaks of a "we" coming to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ!

What does this mean? That God will have other sons as big as Jesus! Do you realize this dear reader - everything that Jesus did and greater works must be done in other sons, in other brethren, for God's original purpose to be fulfilled - GOD MUST HAVE THE LAST WORD!! - not the devil and NOT man! Numbs. 14:16 God's glory is at stake! The world has YET to see the manifestation of the Sons of God! This is the full bloom of a "MUCH MORE" salvation to the credit or glory of God! Jesus has gone to the Father and will never be satisfied until He sees of the travail of His soul in His brethren! He must finish the job Father has given Him to do! He declared "I will build My Church and the GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT!!" The lost key of the Universe is the Father's glory in my heart! Thine is the Glory! Jesus said "I and My Father are One!" He will never be satisfied until there are others who can say this IN TRUTH! Whose lives come into order instead of dis-order - the order of God - an ordered life! Everything moving down one place - salvation, healing, deliverance, blessing and a thousand other things that this shall be in the first place - the glory of God!

May I close this chapter with a children's story: Once upon a time there was a million pounds. Now this million pounds was made up of a unit, a one and six noughts. The unit was first and was everything and the six noughts were nothing but strangely enough in their right order the unit added such value to the noughts that with them they made a million pounds.

Each little nought in his order became of value and also (strangely enough) increased the value of the One (2 Cor. 12: 9) My strength is made perfect in weakness - One day there was trouble!

One nought said �1,000,000This one. "Oh I'm fed up with always being the last - I am like the cows tail always behind - I want a change - I'm going to move!" So he moved! Pushed himself to the front like this:

�1,000,00
0 And so landed here �01,000,00. Now because he was "out of" order he was worth nothing and the million pounds now became a hundred thousand pounds like this �100,000. But that was not all - the other little noughts became discontented and they now wanted to move! And they did so - The million pounds now looked like this �000,000,1 and that makes just �1 because the noughts are only of value in order which is after the ONE! They were good for nothing because they were OUT OF ORDER! Have you ever been disappointed when you have gone up to a machine and then have read the notice on it:

OUT OF ORDER

In other words - it is of no use!! This is the great tragedy of man's life! He is of no use to God because he is out of order! Only through the ONE mediator can the ATONEMENT between God and Man be effected and this was done at Calvary, The purpose of this uttermost salvation is that by ONE Spirit, in ONE hope, ONE faith and ONE baptism, as ONE body we shall be made all ONE in Christ Jesus who is ONE with the Father! That ONE and ONE ONLY shall have all the Glory - even the Father of whom are all things! We shall only be perfect in ONE - are you ONE with the purpose? Which now brings us to our last and final chapter which is all about TWO!